Terrorists in Their Own Words -(A compilation drawn from translations ......)

The Heritage Foundation ^ | August 1, 2007 | James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

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Islamist terrorists have long been at war with the United States and frequently have proclaimed their determination to win the war. In fact, they see their enemies' unwillingness to acknowledge this war as an act of cowardice. If their enemies refuse to wear the mantle of warrior, terrorists assume that they are weak, lacking in honor, and spiritually infe­rior—and the notion that their enemy is vulnerable emboldens them. Failing to acknowledge that we are at war only encourages the enemy to be more warlike.

Conclusive proof that terrorists are at war with us requires little more than reading their own words. A compilation drawn from translations of a number of authoritative sources illustrates the nature of the challenge that America and its allies face and what needs to be done to combat it.

Declaration of War

Osama bin Laden declared war on America in 1996, but before September 11, 2001, few paid more than episodic attention to the one-sided war that al-Qaeda waged against American targets. Over the past five years, others have echoed his call, as these quotes demonstrate. Together they reflect clear and consistent themes.

• These pronouncements clearly advocate terror­ism, the intentional murder of innocents for polit­ical purposes. They advocate an agenda that is illegitimate under any recognized legal or moral authority.
  
  
• These terrorists use religious terminology to legitimize their inexcusable acts. Terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda advocate a totalitarian Islamic ideology that manipulates religious words and ideas but does not accurately represent traditional Islam. Many Islamist terrorists have never received a legitimate religious education.
  
  
• Iraqis the most critical front in al-Qaeda's ter­rorist war effort, as repeatedly stated by bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his chief lieuten­ant. Even Abu al-Layth al-Libi, al-Qaeda's com­mander in Afghanistan, recognizes that Iraq is the "focal point" of the global conflict.
  
  
• Although Osama bin Laden and others of his ilk seek to provoke a clash of civilizations, they also promote a clash within Islamic civi­lization. Al-Qaeda has killed many thousands more Muslims than non-Muslims and more Ira­qis than Americans. Muslims have a major stake in defeating al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups because they are among the terrorists' chief vic­tims and pay a heavy price when forced to live under terrorist regimes.
  
  
• Terrorists do not speak with one voice. Vari­ous terrorist networks pose different kinds of local, regional, and global threats. For instance, while al-Qaeda is the most well known of the terrorist groups, many different terrorist net­works are at work around the world. These include Hezbollah, which has killed hundreds of Americans and struck in Europe and Latin America as well as in the Middle East, and ter­rorist groups in Africa, Asia, and the Indian sub­continent, which have carried out attacks in India and Pakistan. While they do not represent a single cohesive enemy, they all pose distinct threats and are a grave danger to Americans and U.S. interests around the world.

Nothing demonstrates these truths more than the terrorists' own words. The first step in winning a war is understanding the enemy's goals, strategy, and conception of that war. This collection of quo­tations is meant to clarify what the United States and its allies are fighting, using the actual words of terrorist leaders and their affiliates.

Their Words

Sheikh Hussein bin Mahmoud, senior al-Qaeda leader, April 17, 2007:

May Allah send the [Muslim] nation someone who will kill them even more [savagely], strike terror in their [souls], tear their hearts out…cut their heads off, tear them limb from limb and shed their blood in rivers.[1]

Adam Gadhan, a.k.a. Azzam the American, American spokesman for al-Qaeda, May 29, 2007:

[Y]ou and your people will…experience things, which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech. And let us be clear: A pullout from Iraq alone, in the absence of compliance with the remainder of our legitimate demands, will get you nowhere, and will not save you from our strikes. So stop wasting your time and trying to save face with these futile farcical maneuvers on Capital Hill and start making some serious moves.[2]

Muhammad Nimr Al-Zaghmout, head of the Islamic Palestinian Council in Lebanon, May 15, 2007:

Our number one enemy is Satan, and then comes the greatest taghout idol, in the form of Bush, Blair, and the Zionist Crusaders. These have become the mentors of our Arab leaders.…

The Koran says: "Make ready for them what strength you can…." But we say to Allah: We don't want to, because we're afraid that they will call us terrorists. If killing the Zionist Jews, the Ameri­cans, the English, and the French in Palestine, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan is considered terrorism— I am the number one terrorist.[3]

Mullah Dadullah, high-ranking Taliban leader, May 14, 2007:

We will be executing attacks in Britain and the U.S. to demonstrate our sincerity and make them understand how hard it is to endure under a foreign occupation.[4]

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Good News on the NSA program(FR Thread):

Speaker Pelosi Is In The Hot Seat Over National Security (Hugh Hewitt)

*************************EXCERPT*************************

Much has been said in the mainstream media about how the Bush presidency is essentially over, a lame duck mired in controversy. Thursday, however, George W. Bush demonstrated that when he does wish to use the bully pulpit, especially with powerful allies like Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, he very much can move legislation through in a very timely fashion.

[FARS]

Thanks for the ping. Also posted in full on AntiMullah

http://alanpetersnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/terrorists-in-their-own-words.html

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Thanks......

Some Bio info:

***********************************************

Listening to the terrorists' own words and taking them seriously is the first step in winning the long war.

James Phillips is Research Fellow for Middle East­ern Affairs in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.

James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is Assistant Director of the Davis Institute and Senior Re­search Fellow for National Security and Homeland Secu­rity in the Allison Center. Austin Knuppe, an intern at The Heritage Foundation, conducted extensive research in compiling the quotations presented in this paper.

Posted by Alan Peters at 11:10 AM  

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Updates.....

[april15Bendovr]

"Terrorists in Their Own Words" The Heritage Foundation overlooked this one

* Use the Democrats, left wing blogs, youtube and the liberal mainstream media elitists to help promote our propaganda.

[TMSuchman]

To all of the rag heads of the world,

Piss us off and GOD will sit that one out!

We will turn that UN holy shrine of your and turn it into a somldering crater, that no one can go around for the next 20,000 years!

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Reference Links:

Threat Matrix

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Current Threat Matrix Highlight

Al Qaeda Increasingly Reliant on Media

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See link at #27,....

[Valin]

James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. co-author of Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom

Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom
The Heritage Foundation ^ | James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. & Paul Rosenzweig
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430965/posts

Prologue: The Long Shadow of the Long Telegram.....

Or
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/sr04.cfm

(note: A book I consider one of the must reads for those who really want to understand the who what where when and how of this war)

[Valin]

I’ve often wondered how differently things would have been if the President had gotten Congress to declare war.

How many times in the history of this country have we sent the military in without a declaration of war?
Answer: Alot, see Max Boot’s “The Savage Wars Of Peace”

” Half-measures lead to half-hearted strategies.”

Given this is a counter-insurgency on a worldwide scale, what do you suggest as a strategy?

“When the greatest sacrifice asked of the public is that they keep on shopping, seriousness is lost.”

Suggestions?

[gcruse]

“Suggestions?’

To have gotten a Congressional declaration of war. For the reasons I mentioned. It’s too late for that, now. Possibly, we would be looking for terrorists at the airport, rather than weapons.

Israel’s El Al doesn’t pussyfoot. They profile. Without the solid backing of a declared war, we can’t even do that.

[Marine_Uncle]

Let us hope our WIA and KIA continue to plumet to zero. As we loose less soldiers and Marines the demowits have no ammo to produce in support of an early withdraw. The L/MSM of course will remain mostly silent. But the American public as elsewhere will wonder what is going on. What no civil war? No Coalition losses, few suicide attacks, no tires being lite up in streets to make it appear like there is a horrible conflict going on.
But again. I hope our combined prayers for our guys can be answered in the affirmative by HIM.

[Valin]

The problem is/was declare war on who? This is one of the difficulties of this war. It’s not so much a war on someone as it is a war on an idea Islamism. When you get down to it, it’s a war of ideas see reply 29.

“Possibly, we would be looking for terrorists at the airport, rather than weapons.

Israel’s El Al doesn’t pussyfoot”

There’s a difference in scale between what El Al has to deal and what American airports have to deal with. That’s not to say that I’d like to see us adopt the Israeli style of profiling, but that will require great deal of work and money to get there. That and a certain political party would fight it every step of the way.
I think (for obvious reasons) we obess way to much on airline security when there are other areas that need work

I posted some excerpts from a Rand Corp. book that you might be interested in looking at (note: it’s a free download)
Unconquerable Nation Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves
Rand Corp. ^ | Brian Michael Jenkins
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=unconquerablenation
There some good stuff in it.

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Man I love fast broadband,....took me about one second to download that PDF!

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Man I love fast broadband,....took me about one second to download that PDF!

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Now if everything else was that fast I would’t double-post !

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would’t

my dictionary says that should be..... would-n’t

[Valin]

Do you like broadband? :-)

[mathluv]

here is another - for your reading pleasure